In recent years, in order to cut back personnel in medical facilities, research into medical treatments using robots has been carried out. Particularly in the surgery field, various manipulator systems that perform treatments for patients by using manipulators having multi-degrees of freedom (multiple joints) are suggested. As such manipulator systems, a manipulator system is known that holds an instrument at a distal portion of a manipulator and can remotely operate this instrument.
For example, in a robot surgical procedure apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,397, a carriage can be operated from a console where an operator, such as a surgeon, is sitting. The console is provided with a master operation unit for operating the carriage and a display unit for displaying an image to be described below.
The carriage is configured so as to be movable and is installed on the side of a patient who receives a procedure. Generally, three manipulators are attached to the carriage. One manipulator among the three is provided with an image acquisition device, such as an endoscope. An instrument is connected to the remaining two manipulators. An image acquired by the image acquisition device is transmitted to the above console and displayed on the display unit. The respective manipulators are operable by the master operation unit.
In the instrument, an end effector is pivotably provided at a distal portion of a shaft. The end effector for attaching a clip is used. The end effector has a pair of finger elements that have dents formed in opposed surfaces. By arranging a clip in the dents, the clip can be reliably mounted on the end effector.
A procedure using the manipulator system configured in this way is performed as follows. In the following, particularly a treatment using the instrument will be described.
A plurality of cannulas are attached to the body wall of the patient. A cartridge to which a plurality of clips are attached is connected to a manipulator. The master operation unit is operated to drive the manipulator, and the cartridge to which the plurality of clips is attached is introduced into the body of the patient through one cannula. The end effector for clip mounting is introduced into the body of the patient through another cannula.
The end effector is operated from the outside of the body of the patient by a servo mechanism or a manual operation in order to mount a clip, and attaches the clip to a target tissue within the body. For example, by pressing the end effector against the cartridge, one of the clips in the cartridge is mounted on the end effector, and the clip is attached to another target tissue.
In this way, the end effector does not need to take a clip out of a body cavity once and introduce the clip into the body again in order to mount the clip.